Volunteering 2023

[Spacey]

3 hours ago, chuckles07 said:

This.

I just did Bearded Theory for 3rd time on trot, great festival and it was fab. Apart from the shifts. Fri 8-4, Sat & Sun 4-12 (midnight). And not at positions in the arena. We got the shortest of the short straws there, not happy, but its the roll of the dice. You lucky pre-shifters luck is paid for by someone else, somewhere! 😅

I had the same shifts at Bearded and also not in the  arena. They didn’t mix them up. Some people had all arena shifts

[gordong]

I’ve heard with Oxfam that you get four shower tokens. Does anyone know if you get extra ones for doing the earlys? It’s an extra three nights so I’m hoping so. 

[gazzared]

5 minutes ago, gordong said:

I’ve heard with Oxfam that you get four shower tokens. Does anyone know if you get extra ones for doing the earlys? It’s an extra three nights so I’m hoping so. 

I made friends with a lovely couple who had a big motorhome... And after a few days they gave me they're shower tokens as they didn't need them....I didn't get to use them anyway as they're was a water shortage and showers were limited, they did get turned back on eventually. Maybe do a trade of your food tokens for shower tokens ? 

[chuckles07]

47 minutes ago, Spacey said:

I had the same shifts at Bearded and also not in the  arena. They didn’t mix them up. Some people had all arena shifts

Yeah it was strange. You had a fair number of people pretty unhappy with shifts and a similar number who were delighted. Normally it seems every one gets a bit of both. 

[Daniel445]

Does anyone know what the pre festival shits entail? 

[giantkatestacks]

1 hour ago, gordong said:

I’ve heard with Oxfam that you get four shower tokens. Does anyone know if you get extra ones for doing the earlys? It’s an extra three nights so I’m hoping so. 

Well I didn't know that oxfam limit showers. Every day is a learning day.

[StoneCircle]

1 hour ago, gazzared said:

I made friends with a lovely couple who had a big motorhome... And after a few days they gave me they're shower tokens as they didn't need them....I didn't get to use them anyway as they're was a water shortage and showers were limited, they did get turned back on eventually. Maybe do a trade of your food tokens for shower tokens ? 

I gave mine to my co worker as I was in a caravan with a shower. 🙂

[Johnnyseven]

1 hour ago, Daniel445 said:

Does anyone know what the pre festival shits entail? 

Probably a sore tummy and a lot of time in the long drops.

[balti-pie]

2 hours ago, Daniel445 said:

Does anyone know what the pre festival shits entail? 

Generally vehicle gates, and it’s beeping in/out the vendors and retailers who mostly arrive on the Sunday. Expect great swathes of bugger all to do! It goes quickly enough, it’s a cushy number - it’s just quite knackering camping for the nine odd nights the whole shebang entails 

[Dejalves]

Anyone Oxfam vets know what the set up for the earlies is and when the first shifts are?

I'm assuming it's arrive and register on Saturday, a mandatory briefing at some point, then first shift on Sunday? Is there a briefing every day?

Partner has a commitment they can't get out of on Saturday, so best case in a Sat night or early Sun arrival. Will of course ask directly but wanted to scope how flexible they are. Obviously really don't want to give up the very fortunate early shifts if it can be avoided!

[March Hare]

32 minutes ago, Dejalves said:

Anyone Oxfam vets know what the set up for the earlies is and when the first shifts are?

I'm assuming it's arrive and register on Saturday, a mandatory briefing at some point, then first shift on Sunday? Is there a briefing every day?

Partner has a commitment they can't get out of on Saturday, so best case in a Sat night or early Sun arrival. Will of course ask directly but wanted to scope how flexible they are. Obviously really don't want to give up the very fortunate early shifts if it can be avoided!

There isn’t multiple days of briefings, it’s a small process to get a small number of volunteers up and running and then you’re off to work the next day. Recommend messaging the office asap and pleading your case as it could end up a deal breaker

Edited June 3, 2023 by March Hare

[March Hare]

9 hours ago, chuckles07 said:

This.

I just did Bearded Theory for 3rd time on trot, great festival and it was fab. Apart from the shifts. Fri 8-4, Sat & Sun 4-12 (midnight). And not at positions in the arena. We got the shortest of the short straws there, not happy, but its the roll of the dice. You lucky pre-shifters luck is paid for by someone else, somewhere! 😅

Mate that’s poor and needs feeding back to them. On the basis of that I would rule out volunteering at BT. 
No excuse not rotating at least one of those 4-12 shifts into the arena as a minimum. 

[glasto-worker]

10 hours ago, Harry MonkFish said:

Yeah. I have let the organisers know, they've not said there are any issues with me driving there. Just that I have to either go at 2pm or 9pm. I hope they don't change it because I may struggle to go if that's the case. 

I was not meaning Your group organiser HQ I was meaning WBC HQ as after all they are the ones handing out tickets.

The main problem is ' you cant get a private car ' though yellow gate
without a pass so you cant drive in and dump your stuff and then park.

+ you may not even get into public parking without a letter of authority 

2pm Tuesday 20th of June would make sense but you have to make bloody certain that you can make it { allowing time to park and walking down to Gate A }

9pm would be risky as I don't know any coach that would plan to arrive at that time { big note I am only going on previous years }

but provided its cleared by the WBC anytime in the afternoon as they will be there for all the various Coach arrivals { they will send the letter of authority to get into parking } 

+ you could wait hours - Last year they could not find my ticket even although I have been with them 34 years !!! and there was about 50 of us waiting for nearly 2 hours before they found them.

Years ago it was easier as there was a Portacabin you could go to but I think they have ditched that unit.

[philipsteak]

57 minutes ago, Dejalves said:

Anyone Oxfam vets know what the set up for the earlies is and when the first shifts are?

I'm assuming it's arrive and register on Saturday, a mandatory briefing at some point, then first shift on Sunday? Is there a briefing every day?

Partner has a commitment they can't get out of on Saturday, so best case in a Sat night or early Sun arrival. Will of course ask directly but wanted to scope how flexible they are. Obviously really don't want to give up the very fortunate early shifts if it can be avoided!

 

38 minutes ago, March Hare said:

There isn’t multiple days of briefings, it’s a small process to get a small number of volunteers up and running and then you’re off to work the next day. Recommend messaging the office asap and pleading your case as it could end up a deal breaker

Would imagine there'd be no scope for flexibility tbh. Obviously worth asking. It's just easier for them to give the places to someone who can fit with them

Good luck

[philipsteak]

4 hours ago, Daniel445 said:

Does anyone know what the pre festival shits entail? 

Dunno if the earlies email mentions it as I've never seen one but also with mentioning that the shifts are all the same, which means you could end up with 3 night shifts.

My mates got that last year and it took her a few days to recover

[March Hare]

10 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Dunno if the earlies email mentions it as I've never seen one but also with mentioning that the shifts are all the same, which means you could end up with 3 night shifts.

My mates got that last year and it took her a few days to recover

@JayBalls got those last year

[JayBalls]

10 hours ago, March Hare said:

@JayBalls got those last year

Indeed, it was nice to have earlies and get them out of the way for a free run of the festival but those 3 night shifts were a bit of a slog. 

[gordong]

20 hours ago, gazzared said:

I made friends with a lovely couple who had a big motorhome... And after a few days they gave me their shower tokens as they didn't need them....I didn't get to use them anyway as there was a water shortage and showers were limited, they did get turned back on eventually. Maybe do a trade of your food tokens for shower tokens ? 

That was lovely of them! Yeah, definitely would be up for trading or even buying them off people. I take it the showers being turned off was in 2019? I remember hearing that all showers on the site were closed on Saturday due to there being a water shortage. 

[gazzared]

2 minutes ago, gordong said:

That was lovely of them! Yeah, definitely would be up for trading or even buying them off people. I take it the showers being turned off was in 2019? I remember hearing that all showers on the site were closed on Saturday due to there being a water shortage. 

Yeah that's correct, they wanted to prioritise the  festival drinking water ... Which absolutely made sense due to the extreme temperatures 

[Leyrulion]

4 hours ago, gordong said:

That was lovely of them! Yeah, definitely would be up for trading or even buying them off people. I take it the showers being turned off was in 2019? I remember hearing that all showers on the site were closed on Saturday due to there being a water shortage. 

All except Wateraid showers, which is the added perk of that volunteering. 

[dondo]

45 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

All except Wateraid showers, which is the added perk of that volunteering. 

I don't think recycling crew were either but I think Wateraid and recycling crew use the same ones?

[incident]

2 hours ago, dondo said:

I don't think recycling crew were either but I think Wateraid and recycling crew use the same ones?

Not sure whether they're the same ones or not. But the reason would be the same for each - namely that working those roles can involve potential contact with unwanted substances.

[dondo]

2 hours ago, incident said:

Not sure whether they're the same ones or not. But the reason would be the same for each - namely that working those roles can involve potential contact with unwanted substances.

Yes. Good point. 

[CBR]

So do we think there'll be many spaces going in the next week or two or do we think that's pretty much it now?

[jfaragher]

On 6/3/2023 at 7:20 PM, Dejalves said:

Anyone Oxfam vets know what the set up for the earlies is and when the first shifts are?

I'm assuming it's arrive and register on Saturday, a mandatory briefing at some point, then first shift on Sunday? Is there a briefing every day?

Partner has a commitment they can't get out of on Saturday, so best case in a Sat night or early Sun arrival. Will of course ask directly but wanted to scope how flexible they are. Obviously really don't want to give up the very fortunate early shifts if it can be avoided!

Early shifts are usually three of the same - morning (approx 0600 to 1400, though might be one or two hours later than this?), afternoon (approx 1400 to 2200) or overnight (2200 to 0600) on Sun / Mon / Tues.  You will need to be there to arrive in time to be briefed on Saturday.